If you’re into fantasy, do you ever pick up a romance and give it a shot? Or read a historical fiction book if you’re into scifi? It’s a leap of faith that doesn’t always work out but when it does it’s pretty sweet.
I asked a friend what her favorite book was, and she said The Goldfinch. I had never heard of it and hadn’t read any fiction/contemporary like it, but it ended up being such a great surprise. It was one of the few 5 star reads of that year and I never would have experienced it if I hadn’t taken the chance.
I’d say every so often, just take a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Yes, all the time!
I try to pick a topic I want to become familiar with, or a genre I want to learn more about, and try to explore it. So I often end up buying a lot of primary sources that are a bit beyond me, and it takes a bit of background research before I can get anything out of them.
For instance, I read “Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen” by Liliʻuokalani (because how can you pass up that title?). I got so little out of it, because I didn’t understand Hawai’ian history. OK, so I go out and read the history book “Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands” by Gavan Daws. OK, I understand the political situation it took place in, but am 99% sure I’m missing out on a lot of cultural contexts and Daws is too. So I read “Kamehameha and His Warrior Kekūhaupiʻo” by Stephen Desha, which is a serialized account of the rise of the Hawai’ian monarchy meant to educate Hawai’ian people on their history but it’s a bit TOO Hawai’ian for me, so I have to get Nānā I Ke Kumu, Helu ʻEkahi/Look To The Source Volume I, which helps with interpretation of cultural context. And NOW I feel like I’m maybe prepared enough to loop back around and read Liliʻuokalani’s diaries, which cover the same time period as “Hawaii’s Story By Hawaii’s Queen” but give behind-the-scenes details.